FROM ZERO TO FINTECH
2022

LEARN MORE

19 – 27 March 2022

A Hackathon for a Fintech-savvy nation

ORGANISERS

What is the From Zero To Fintech ?

The contemporary Fintech market is a jungle. With this Hackathon, we – BFA, FEBA at Sofia University, and our partners, are aiming at guiding you through all booby traps, deadly insects, and fierce predators well-hidden in the Fintech world of 2022. In a series of workshops, the event provides all participants with the tools to:

  • Build a fire – creating a sustainable Fintech idea
  • Find a source of drinking water – pitching before investors
  • Find a shelter – be in compliance with regulations
  • Sailing at the open market – awards provided by our sponsors, in the form of services will help your ideas come to life

Who is it for?

From Zero To Fintech is open to everyone who has been flying or is about to jump in the plane of Finance, IT, Marketing, Sales, Law, etc. We welcome aboard all Fintech-savvy disruptors who are not afraid to face the market reality and test their abilities and ideas.

Sounds like you?
Register now!

UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF

Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Bulgaria

SUPPORTED BY

PARTNERS

General Partner

Platinum Sponsor

Bronze Sponsor

CHALLENGES

  1. Build your own FinTech startup

    a. Make your own Future in Finance: Develop and test an idea from the ground up
    b. Get the best advice from our mentors to prepare for an independent entrepreneurial path and (maybe 😉) become the new Robinhood™

  2. Case studies
    a. Provide solutions to cases suggested by Bulgarian and international companies and government institutions
    b. Get noticed by FinTech and BigTech companies that search for TOP talent

  3. Open Banking
    a. Get a free access to the API-simulator of the first Open Banking provider in Bulgaria: IRIS Solutions
    b. Apply your advanced IT skills and develop open banking solutions for payments, credit risk management, asset management, insurance, green finance, smart regulation and smart cities, and more

Note: Your FinTech startup ideas and the case study solutions may involve application of Open Banking

JURY

Public Sector:

Boryana Bogdanova

Vice Dean at FEBA
Sofia University

Desislava Manova

Managing Director
Elevate Accelerator

Miroslav Stoyanov

Manager
EBRD

Bozhidar Nedev

Chief Associate Professor
Sofia University

UK Fintech Representatives

US Fintech Representative

Ekaterina Borisova

UK Financial Policy, Crypto and Fintech
FCA
United Kingdom

Ani Petrova

Founder of
The Fintech Marketing
Hub

Assen Tchorbadjiev

Global Engineering & Operations Blockchain and Crypto

Emil Koulov

Chairman | Chicago Booth Entrepreneurial Roundtable

Bulgarian Fintech Sector Representatives

Svetlin Sabev

COO & Member of
the BoD
StikCredit

Daniel Dzholev

Deputy CIO
Unicredit Bulbank

Ivelin Kamburov

Group CFO &
BoD Member
Credissimo

Boyan Stefanov Griffen

Regulatory Developments Senior Manager at Lloyds

Stephan Simmang

Group CTO
flatexDEGIRO

George Galtchin

Director Digital Transformation
TBI Bank

WORKSHOP MENTORS – FINTECH WIZARDS

Veselina Markova

Corporate Innovation I Fintech
Eleven Ventures

Pavel Panayotov

Hackathon Winner
2021

Stoyan Pedev

CEO of Conquex
IBM Champion Blockchain

Ivan Vankov

Principal Blockchain Architect
IBM Champion

Marina Shideroff

Founder & CEO of
FRAM Creative Solutions

Georgi Stoyanov

Head, CRM & Digital Enablement, Limacon

Neda Muzho

Head of Department
Financial Superv. Commission

Mihael Mihaylov

Co-founder & BDO
Iris Solutions

BUSINESS CASE MENTORS

Stefan Atanasov

Corporate Finance and Investments @ NEXO

Loic Le Pichoux

CEO & Co-founder
Klear Lending

Galya Dimitrova

Managing Partner
Iris Solutions

Mihael Mihaylov

Co-founder and BDO
Iris Solutions

WORKSHOP MENTORS

Deyan Radev, Phd

Assistant Professor of Fintech
and Banking, Sofia University

Nikolay Stoykov

Business Consulting Team Lead
DIGITALL

AGENDA

REGISTRATION PERIOD

Monday 21.02.2022 – Friday 18.03.2022

Registration with ideas/interests in Fintech via a Registration form
– All registrants will sign up with their credentials, short bio and what is their Fintech field of interest (by categories: Regtech, Insurtech, payments, etc.). Either propose an original Fintech idea or choose between the case studies provided by our partners

OPENING DAY

Saturday (19.03.2022)

11:30 – 11:45 – Hackathon Kick-off
11:45 – 12:30 – Keynote Speeches
12:30 – 13:30 – Overview of the Hackathon
13:30 – 18:00 – Workshops

WORKSHOPS

Saturday 19.03.2022

# Name of Workshop Organization involved Company name Speaker Time
1 Fintech ecosystem in Bulgaria &
Fintech Start-up Journey		 NGO BFA & 2021 Hackathon Winner Georgi Penev &
Pavel Panayotov		 13:30 – 14:00
2 Top 3 technologies in Fintech Private company IBM Champions Stoyan Pedev &
Ivan Vankov		 14:00 – 14:30
3 Learn how to fundraise. Insiders guide to get to term sheet Venture capital Eleven Ventures Veselina Markova 14:30 – 15:30
4 BREAK 15:30 – 16:00
5 Fintech UX  Design firm Fram Creative Solutions Marina Shiderof 16:00 – 17:00
6 Market and sell your solution Marketing firm Limacon Georgi Stoyanov 17:00-18:00
7 Top 5 applications of Open Banking in 2022 Fintech Iris Solutions Mihael Mihaylov 18:00 – 18:15
8 Speed up your go-to-market with Innovation Hub by FSC Bulgaria Regulator Financial Supervision Commission of Bulgaria Neda Muzho 18:15-18:45

 

CREATING FINTECH SOLUTIONS

Sunday – Friday (20– 25.03.2022)

  1. Getting to know each other and the tools we will use
    Guided communication by organisers. During the Hackathon we will use Slack, Sli do, Miro and many more, so in the beginning we will have a small talk about the tools we will use to communicate and execute.
  2. Forming the dream teams
    Creating teams around Fintech ideas
  3. Working with mentors
    Mentors jump in in every team and help with 30-minute advice per team (mentors agree with the teams suitable for the mentor time of the meetings).
  4. Testing Open banking solutions in real-life scenario
    If you are fast and passionate enough your ideas might be tested in live with Iris Solutions PSD2 Hub

CREATING PITCHING VIDEOS

Saturday, 26.03.2022

In the morning:
 Having another 10-minute mentor session with all teams, if needed

In the afternoon:
 Teams creating 3-minute pitching videos

THE BIG DAY

Sunday, 27 March

  • Live streaming
    Streaming a pitching session of the pre-recorded videos
  • Evaluation process
    The jury will have their last thoughts and opinion on what you propose
  • Fintech Conference
    While judging, we will jump into the following discussions:
    – Fintech Of The Future; Duration – 1:15 hrs.
    Stay tuned to be to find out the line-up!

Awarding Ceremony
Let’s the best teams win!

PRINCIPLES

Fulfill these principles and let your creativity rise and shine

ELIGIBILITY
The hackathon welcomes everyone interested in the field of finance. Whether you are a business, IT, Marketing, Sales or Law focused, or just a Fintech-savvy who wants to be the creator of the next generation Fintech, that’s the place for you!

TEAM SIZE
If you don’t have a team yet, during the event we will help you form teams of up to 6 people. The dream team would look like: 1.Finance 2. IT 3. Marketing 4. Sales 5. Legal. Teams with 50-50 women-men receive extra points.

CHECK-IN IS A MUST
All participants have to register by 23:59 on 18th March.

SUBMIT ON TIME
All teams should submit their work by 23:59 on 26th March. Any presentations submitted after will be invalid.

OWNERSHIP AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Teams have full ownership of everything they create during the event. Teams are free to do with it as they see wish.

BE NICE WITH EACH OTHER
We are all here to have fun and learn from the best. No need for hard feelings. Keep your cool 🙂

COMMON QUESTIONS

Before you ask, check these Q&As

The Hackathon is completely FREE of charge. Zero. Zip. Nada.

Don’t worry about that, you just fill in the form below and type in a short bio of yours, ideas, passion, interests and so on. The Hackathon is about meeting new, fresh people. We will get you in a team according to your interests and profile. But, still there will be plenty of time for everyone to meet other and pick teams before the start of the actual hacking.

In the COVID times we will use Slack, Microsoft Teams, Miro as a whiteboard and Google.

The business cases are provided by BFA member companies who are willing to challenge you in resolving a real-life problem. Get the puzzle sorted and you can expect a call from them.

Of course you can! You are more than welcome to work on your own idea. Make sure it matches Judge’s expectations and workshops’ training. If you don’t have a team yet, you better hurry and share your idea with the audience, so you get the best chances on building the team you dreamed of.

Mentors are there to help you. They will make the best out of their schedule to meet and discuss relevant topics to them. If you are having an idea on Regtech you will be provided with the list of mentors on Regtech. Give them a shout and schedule a suitable time for both your team and your mentor.

Iris PSD2 HUB is a platform that benefits all innovative financial companies and institutions which are interested in applying Open-banking in their products and services. Using a single-integration API to IRIS PSD2 HUB, anyone can access all banks and financial institutions on the platform: 13 banks in Bulgaria, Revolut, Paysera, banks in Greece and Romania.

The best ideas will receive awards, provided by our sponsors, in the form of services that will further support the development of the ideas and help them step up on the market.

From Zero To Fintech Hackathon is not about the winning, it’s about the learning. Through the hackathons and the process of working in teams you will get unique insights about the Fintech market and meet amazing people on the way. There is always a next year and you will more than welcomed to join once again 🙂 

Good wi-fi and a PC. Most importantly – passion to work in a team and a smile on your face. 

If we haven’t answer to all your questions, feel free to drop us a line at: [email protected]

JUDGING CRITERIA

To win this race you need to go the whole nine yards. So you better get an idea on how your idea will be evaluated.

CUSTOMER FOCUSED

  • Is your idea answering a need or/and solving an existing problem in the financial sphere?
  • How well do you understand your potential customers’ needs?
  • Who will be your users, and do they differ from your customers?

ARCHITECTURE AND EFFECT

  • What information do you rely on when creating your Minimum Viable Product?
  • Did you manage to build a prototype?
  • How effective is your solution?
  • Did you collect customer feedback?
  • Did you incorporate customer feedback into your solution?

SUSTAINABILITY OF THE BUSINESS MODEL

  • What is your key value proposition?
  • What is your competition?
  • Which is your specific target market and audience?
  • How will you acquire your first customers?
  • How feasible is your solution?
  • What is the regulatory framework you will operate in?
  • How scalable is your solution?
  • Is the solution unique to the Bulgarian market only or you can apply/expand the model abroad?
  • Can your solution be executed by the team (potentially with the help of outside experts, attracted later)?
  • What are the potential risks for the implementation of your business plan (e.g., economic, political, regulatory, etc.)? How would you address them?

SOCIAL IMPACT

  • Is your solution solving a convenience problem of existing services or provides a new service?
  • Does your service target or is it accessible to the “unbanked” population?
  • How does your service make our life as a society better?
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

PRIZES

IRIS PSD 2 Prize

Iris solutions provides free of charge services and access to PSD 2 productional environment

IRIS Open Banking Prize

The winner of Iris’s prize receives 9-month free-of-charge access to the productional environment of IRIS PSD 2 HUB where there are more than 20 integrated payments institutions. In addition, Iris Open banking winner becomes Iris Solutions representative and gets 1-year access to IRIS Solutions SDK for mobile apps and Web.

Mystery Award

Something like a mystery box but for Fintech startups

Mystery Award

The winner of this prize gets a special award which will be revealed at the final of the Fintech Hackathon.

StikCredit Award

StikCredit offers a post-hackathon mentorship for the best Fintech idea

StikCredit Award

StikCredit is ready to provide the best From Zero to Fintech team and ideat with a biweekly post-hackathon mentorship program for the next 3 months. 

BGN 3,000

BFA provides BGN 3,000 to the winner of From Zero To Fintech 2022 Hackathon

The BFA prize

The winner of the BFA prize receives BGN 3,000 that should be used for the realisation of the Fintech created during the event. The prize will be given to the team with the best overall performance throughout the hackathon.

ABOUT THE ORGANISERS

Bulgarian Fintech Association

BFA is a non-governmental, for-impact organization uniting all interest parties in the sector of digital finance innovation, working from the region of Southeastern Europe (SEE). Our mission is to further develop the digital finance sector in Bulgaria. In our initiatives, we bring together large Fintechs, SMEs, and supporting industries, as well as the respective authorities and academia to create favorable conditions for the development of digital finance solutions. Our ultimate goal is to establish Bulgaria as a leading Fintech Hub in the region of Southeastern Europe. We believe that fostering the Fintech businesses in Bulgaria will activate the country’s potential for innovation and new technologies.

Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (FEBA) at Sofia University

Sofia University is the first school of higher education in Bulgaria. Its history is an embodiment and a continuation of centuries of cultural and educational tradition in Bulgaria. FEBA is one of the leading institutions for teaching and research in the field of Economics and Business in the country and the Balkan region. FEBA’s mission is to produce highly-qualified graduates capable of working in all spheres of our public life.

Our graduate programmes reflect the changes in society and business by providing specialized knowledge. In October 2021, together with BFA we launched a Master’s degree in Finance, Investments and Fintech whose next step is the From Zero to Fintech Hackathon. We are committed to continue providing the highest quality of teaching and research implemented with real-life business cases and opportunities.

Learn more about the organisers – Bulgarian Fintech Association and
Finance and Investments Master’s degree program at FEBA at Sofia University